Eisner's group describes new defensive lipids from Pieris rapae

[Michael Gochfeld]

In the spririt of having an occasional posting strictly about leps I am forwarding the following  abstract of  paper no. 183 from the series, Defense Mechanisms of Arthropods (that doesn't look like a complete reference to me). .  MIKE GOCHFELD

Neal Smith  of STRI circulated the abstract with a brief introduction: :

Neal Smith wrote:

> With that title in the subject heading, all know what is likely to be about, and of course who had a hand in it ...Oh God, another Eisner/ Meinwald smasher....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> And in this one Tom names a class of defensive compounds after an acolyte of his and a fellow member of the National Academy, May Berenbaum.
>  She seems to be following in his pattern of continuing to do active and unmatched research long after he was elected a member of the National Academy
> ============================================================================

> Mayolenes: Labile defensive lipids from the glandular hairs of a caterpillar (Pieris rapae)
> Scott R. Smedley*, Frank C. Schroeder, Douglas B. Weibel, Jerrold Meinwald, Katie A. Lafleur*, J. Alan Renwick, Ronald Rutowski§, and Thomas Eisner¶,
> * Department of Biology, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106; Departments of  Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and ¶ Neurobiology and Behavior, and  Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; and § Department of Biological Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 95287
>

This is paper no. 183 from the series, Defense Mechanisms of Arthropods.


>
> Contributed by Thomas Eisner, March 21, 2002
>     Abstract
> Larvae of the European cabbage butterfly, Pieris rapae (Pieridae), are beset with glandular hairs, bearing droplets of a clear oily secretion at their tip. The fluid consists primarily of a series of chemically labile, unsaturated lipids, the mayolenes, which are derived from 11-hydroxylinolenic acid. In bioassays with the ant Crematogaster lineolata, the secretion was shown to be potently deterrent, indicating that the fluid plays a defensive role in nature.
> chemical defense|predation|Lepidoptera|Formicidae
>
>     Introduction
> The European cabbage butterfly, Pieris rapae, is a widely distributed insect. Native to Eurasia and North Africa, it was accidentally introduced into Canada in about 1860, from where it spread over most of North America. It also has become established in Bermuda, Australia, Hawaii, and other Pacific Islands (1). As a larva, it prefers plants of the crucifer and caper families (Brassicaceae, Capparidaceae), and it is a common pest on cabbage, Brussel sprouts, and cauliflower (1). Pursuant to a study of the defenses of a number of larval insects, we noted the caterpillars of P. rapae to be beset with glandular hairs, such as pierid larvae had been reported to possess (2), but had never been investigated. In P. rapae, these hairs are arranged in rows along the full length of the body. Their product is a clear oily fluid that collects as droplets at the tip of the hairs (Fig. 1). On the assumption that this secretion might be protective and responsible in part for P. rapae's
> extraordinary adaptive fitness, we looked into both the repellency and chemistry of the fluid. We found the secretion to be potently deterrent to ants, and to consist primarily of a series of unsaturated lipids, which we named the mayolenes. Here, we present these results.**
>
> We named mayolenes in honor of May Berenbaum, whose visionary research, lectures, and writings on insects have helped spur entomophilia the world over. We thank Janice Schlesinger for rearing the insects, Maria Eisner for help with photography, Janis Strope for help with the manuscript, and Stefan Cover for identification of the ant. This study was supported by Grants AI02908 (T.E.) and GM 53850 (J.M.) from the National Institutes of Health, the Eppley Foundation for Research (S.R.S.), Trinity College Faculty Research Committee (S.R.S.), and a Pfizer Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (K.A.L.).


 
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